Tristan Prettyman Bares All On New Album

Singer-songwriter Tristan Prettyman is no stranger to writing about her personal experiences, but this time it’s different. After a heartbreaking end to her engagement with Jason Mraz, Tristan channeled all her emotions into her music. Her forthcoming album Cedar + Gold is due for release September 25 and she filled in CBS Local on the making of her album and the nerves she had about being so open.

“This record is definitely more honest than the last couple of records. I’ve always written from a very personal place but I’ve also been a little bit guarded,” Tristan admitted. “I think I’m definitely a lot more open with my fans and in my songs then maybe a lot of other artists. This record I just went through the honesty door and there was no telling where I was going to go.”

While Tristan used to dance around subjects she allowed herself to let her guard down this time around. With songs like the poignant “I Was Gonna Marry You” she gets her point across.

“I was sort of at this point where I had so much stuff happen to me that it just broke all my walls down and I was just stripped and left standing there going, ‘Okay. I guess we just go for it now,'” she said.

“I just got to this point where I was like, ‘I’m sick of not saying how I feel for the sake of being worried about if someone else is going to not agree with me or not accept me because of it.’ I was just like, ‘Screw it. Let’s just do it. Let’s say it how it is.’ Life might end tomorrow so might as well.”

Such a revealing release, Tristan did admit to being hesitant of laying everything out in her music.

“I was a little nervous to make this record so specific to phone calls and emails and conversations with my ex, but at the same time we’ve always been pretty out in the open with our fans and with the public,” she said.

“There was just a lot of events that happened that I felt like I needed personally to just state the truth and be really honest. It was just for me,” she said. “I didn’t want to react in a blog or on a Twitter or start answering fans personally. It was easier for me to just collect all the feeling and take a big breath and just put it into the songs.”

A cathartic experience, Tristan doesn’t want fans to pick sides.

“The songs are my truth and I know that he has his truth as well,” she said. “There’s no right or wrong answer. No one’s right or wrong or the bad guy or the good guy. These songs are simply my truth of how I interpreted and how I remember things.”

Cedar + Gold is due for release September 25. Pre-order the album on Amazon.